Pink Poodles and the Blue Men who Love Them
by purplegirl761
Summary: It's been a rough week for him - what with nightmares and a trip to the emergency room. But Drakken has the perfect solution. He's going to get a puppy! Chaos ensues.
1. Chapter 1

Something that came to me after watching "Rufus vs. Commodore Puddles." (Which, by the way, if you're a big ol' softie like me, you practically need insulin to get through.) And when I get ideas, I need to write them. So, here we go!

Credit for the title goes to my dad.

******************__

Shadows.

They surround him - some big, some little, all dark and scary and breathing hot breath. All full of more danger than he can even comprehend.

All evil.

He can feel one breathing down his neck, but the second he whips around, it's gone. They dance around in front of him, and they don't stay still.

Suddenly, a little kid appears in front of him - cute, with messed-up dark hair and freckles. But as he stares, the kid grows taller, lankier, loses his freckles, and gains glasses and braces.

Something hurts in his chest, and he squirms. But that transformation is nothing compared to what happens next.

The awkward-looking preteen suddenly splits in two, and a tall, scary figure emerges. It takes one look at him, cowering on the ground, and laughs evilly.

He can't make make his feet move. Can't run. Can't talk. He can only raise his hand -

- and he shot bolt upright in the chair, dropping a pencil as he did.

Pencil. Chair. He gave the room a thorough scanning. All right. It was okay. It was just a dream. And from the light streaming in through the curtains, all the shadows of the night were gone for now.

He got out of the chair and crawled under the table to retrieve his pencil, smacking his head on the bottom of the table as he did so. He must have fallen asleep in his chair again, he figured out. Shego had always said his contacts would become permanently fused with his eyes if he did that too often, but she might have just been trying to scare him.

He could never figure out how she knew he wore contacts, anyway. Maybe she had seen the spare pair of glasses he had hidden in his pajama drawer, should he ever need them, though he was pretty sure he'd rather squint than ever wear them. They made him think of elementary school. And middle school. And high school. And college -

He cut that thought off and replaced it with a mental note - _from now on, hide anything private in your underwear drawer._

Okay. What time _was _it, anyway?

He squinted out the window. _Well, I could judge the trajectory of the sun and use that to figure out the approximate- _

Or he could just look at the clock. Seven on the dot. Shego wouldn't be here till nine.

Drakken stretched, rubbed his eyes, and ran his hands down his face - and then winced. He'd gotten his stitches out yesterday, but the area under his left eye was still pretty tender.

He looked down at the blueprints sprawled on his lab table. Sometime before he'd fallen asleep last night - or morning; he was never sure - he'd drawn a huge, nasty-looking machine he needed to build and written at the top _Operation Global Warming._

Drakken shook his head. No, that didn't sound nearly impressive enough anymore.

He gnawed at the eraser for a minute, then turned the pencil upside-down, erased the words, and wrote _Operation EVIL Global Warming of DOOM!!!!!!_

There. Much better.

Okay, okay - breakfast, shower, get dressed, work on latest evil scheme, wait for Shego to arrive. That was how it went. He hadn't forgotten, even in the shadows of the night.

Drakken walked over to the pantry, yanked it open, and pulled out the donut box. His heart sank when he felt how light it was. _I just got this the other day!_

He flipped the lid, and was greeted by the sight of exactly one-and-a-half donuts. That, and a scrap of paper.

He plucked it out and read:

__

This is ALL you get. Trust me, it's for your own good.

-Shego

Darn her. Oh, well, maybe she was right. Yesterday, when he'd been really hungry and eaten two whole boxes of the stuff - well, it had _tasted _pretty good, but after a little while, it didn't _feel _very good.

Besides, Shego was usually right.

After the donuts were eaten and the glass of milk was drunk (Drank? Dranken? Drunken? Drinked?), Drakken opted for a bath instead of a shower. Every time he took a shower, he would always manage to slip on the bar of soap, fall over, and nearly crack his head open. He was not in the mood for going back to the hospital.

Before that, though, he snuck a glance in the mirror, fingers crossed. Maybe today was the day it had finally worn off -

Nope. Still blue. Rats.

He peeled the Band-Aid off his cheek and then flinched. Yep. That was going to scar, all right. _Just _what he needed.

After he was clean and dressed, he felt sort of - lost, the way he usually did when Shego wasn't around for him to bounce thoughts off. Even her snorts and sarcastic remarks were better than lonely silence.

So Drakken just kind of wandered around, noticing the answering machine was flashing. A new message. Well, let's see. No one ever called him except Shego and -

"Drewbie!"

Oh, no.

"Hi, pumpkin, it's Mom. I was just calling to check up on you - I heard your stitches were coming out today. You're so brave..."

Shego probably wouldn't agree with that. He'd _tried _to keep it together, though. He hadn't even thrown up this time.

"Anyway, you didn't pick up your phone, so I guess you're busy with that radio talk show of yours." Drakken heard his mother's voice get thick and soft. "My son, helping needy people with their problems. I'm so proud of you, Drewbie. You're such a good boy."

The answering machine beeped and informed him that was the final message, and he collapsed onto the floor in defeat.

Drakken would never admit it to anyone - not even Shego - but there was a tiny little annoying thing living inside him that didn't want to take over the world. Its residence was constantly changing - sometimes it lived in his stomach and made it churn; sometimes it traveled up to his chest and split his heart in two; sometimes it crawled up even further and put a lump in his throat.

Whenever he heard his mother's voice, it did all three.

__

She wouldn't be proud of me if she knew.

But she didn't know. She didn't know, so everything was okay. He took a long, shuddery breath. Everything was okay.

Later, while waiting for Shego to come, he booted up his computer to see if the government had developed any new top secret weapons. It would probably say on the news - and he could certainly use them for Operation Evil Global Warming of Doom!!!!

But the article that popped up said something about having a dog lowering your blood pressure. Drakken felt a little twinge of curiosity. Shego was always warning him about his blood pressure level. "It must be through the roof by now, Doc," she would say.

The article was actually kind of boring, until one sentence jumped up and waved its arms at him.

"Dogs' unconditional love makes them popular pets, but studies have shown that they are actually good for a person's physical health, as well..."

He felt his eyes widen. Unconditional love. That was something his mother always used to talk about. It meant you loved someone no matter what.

Even if they were ugly. Even if they had weird nightmares and slipped on bars of soap and slammed their heads on tables and consumed entire boxes of donuts.

Even if they tried to take over the world, and even if they failed at even that because they sometimes felt like they couldn't do a single - stupid - thing - right.

They loved them.

That sounded very, very good to Drakken, and he made up his mind then and there. He was going to get a puppy.


	2. Chapter 2

Second part.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reviewed this story and the first one. Your kind words mean a lot to me.

*****************

The knock at the door brought him straight up out of his thoughts. Shego was here.

He flung open the door and belted out, "Shego, I want a puppy!"

"Good morning to you, too, Doc," Shego replied. Her lips twitched at the corners, which meant that for the moment she found him more amusing than annoying.

"So, can I have one?" Drakken asked hopefully.

"No."

He felt himself deflate. That was one thing he would never understand about Shego - how she could be so nice to him and then turn around and casually crush his dreams with one simple word.

He begged. He showed her the article about dogs lowering your blood pressure. He explained to her about unconditional love. (All that did was make her snort.) He promised to feed it - and walk it - and give it fresh water.

Finally, after about two hours of that, Shego held up her hand. "If I let you get a puppy, will you shut up?"

Drakken nodded immediately.

"Fine, then." Shego heaved a huge sigh and flipped her glossy dark hair over one shoulder.

Something bubbled up inside him that made him jump up and down and clap his hands - because he was sure if he didn't, he would just explode from joy. "Thank you, Shego!" he cried. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank -"

"If you keep that up, I'll reconsider," Shego muttered, reaching for her nail file. He wasn't sure whether that meant she was about to file her nails from boredom or stab him with it from irritation. Either way, he stopped the "thank you"s.

"So," Drakken mused, rubbing his chin in thought, "where would be the best place to steal one from?"

Shego's green, cat-like eyes sprang wide open. "Oh, no, Dr. D.," she muttered. "You aren't gonna go _steal _a dog."

Drakken felt his hands fly to his hips. Who was she to tell him what he should and shouldn't do? She was just the _sidekick_, after all! "Why not?" he demanded.

Shego unfolded her fingers from their clenched fists and began to tick things off on them. "First of all, you can get them for free at the animal shelter. And, second of all, if the police found out, they'd take the puppy away from you, and I'm assuming you don't want that."

Okay, so maybe she knew what she was talking about.

"Fine," he muttered. "We'll go to the animal shelter. This afternoon."

"Goody," Shego grunted. "I can hardly wait."

**********

He was overwhelmed. There were so many dogs, young and old, big and small, all different colors (well, maybe not _all _different colors; he didn't see any blue ones, and that made him feel a little conspicuous), and they all needed homes. The second they saw him, their big brown eyes lit up and they started thumping their tails against the floors of their cages.

Drakken waved at them all awkwardly. He wasn't used to anyone being happy to see him. He had half-expected them all to start growling at him when he walked in the room.

"Which one do I choose?" he muttered.

Shego didn't seem to hear him. She had walked over to a cage full of chubby little beagle puppies and was sticking her hand inside. "Oh, they are so _cute_!" she squealed.

Drakken's entire world was knocked off its axis. He had never heard sassy, no-nonsense Shego squeal before. Maybe puppies did bring out the best in everyone.

"Can I help you, sir?" a worker asked, walking up to him, scribbling something on her clipboard. When she saw Drakken, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

__

Yes, I know I'm blue. And yes, I know I have an enormous Band-Aid on my face. You can quit staring now!

But she didn't, and that made him squirm. And when his brain went into knots and he couldn't think of a single thing to do or say, there was only one thing to do.

"Shego!" he hollered.

Shego tore herself away from the cage of beagles and sauntered over. "Yeah?" she said in her usual I-am-so-bored tone.

Drakken pointed at the worker. "She asked me if she could help me, and I..."

One of Shego's eyebrows went up, and Drakken slowly realized exactly how stupid he sounded. "Don't pay any attention to him," she said to the worker. "He doesn't get out much."

Drakken felt his face grow hot.

The worker recovered then, shaking her head and chuckling to herself. "Oh, that's okay," she said. "So, can I help you two?"

"I suppose," Shego muttered. She pointed at Drakken. "_He _wants a puppy." She gave her cat-eyes a roll.

"Ah." The worker's eyebrows went up, and she and Shego exchanged a glance that made Drakken feel like someone was talking about him behind his back. "I see."

"So, do you want any of these little guys?" Shego gestured toward the beagle cage. "They're awfully cute."

The puppies wagged their tails and fell all over each other in excitement. Between Shego squealing and puppies being happy to see him, the whole thing was starting to feel like a scene from _The Twilight Zone_.

But Drakken shook his head without really knowing why. "No. They aren't what I'm looking for."

Shego put her hands on her hips. "Well, then, Mr. I-Want-A-Puppy, what _are _you looking for?"

Drakken shrugged. "I'll know it when I see it."

"Oh, boy," Shego said with a snort. "We are gonna be here all day, aren't we?"

But they weren't. For just at that moment, Drakken's eyes lit on a nearly-empty cage at the end of the room. Curled up inside was a lone tiny, puffy, pink poodle puppy.

Something pulled him across the room toward the cage, like a giant magnet pulling all the continents together so that the whole world was one _big _continent and a lot easier to rule. _Ooh, good idea. _

Drakken went over and peered into the cage. The puppy had his chin resting on his front paws, which looked like tiny pink cupcakes. Mmm, cupcakes...

But the poodle didn't even seem to notice him. His doggy eyebrows were shifting from side to side, and those little eyes of his looked...sad. And lost. And scared. It was a look he recognized, though he wasn't sure where he'd seen it before.

"Who's this?" Shego was at his side, peering in with him.

The worker gave her head a sad shake. "Oh, that poor little thing. We had to give him his own cage, because the other dogs....well, they're good dogs, all of them. There's no such thing as a bad dog. But some dogs get territorial, and our poor little poodle here was pretty much picked on. They would growl at him and chase him away from the food, stuff like that."

Drakken plastered himself against the chain-link-thing in front of the cage. He was feeling something strange, something new. Something that made him feel like he had the flu, aching in his chest. "Why?" he breathed.

"Oh, who knows?" The worker flung her hands in the air. "Probably because he was the new dog and they never got used to him."

"Or maybe," Shego smirked, "because he's little and funny-looking."

Something slid into Drakken's head and locked with a solid _clink_, like the final screw bolting into place on a Doomsday device. Because he finally knew where he'd seen that look before.

In the mirror.

"He doesn't seem too trusting, either," the worker continued. "He doesn't growl or anything, but he never seems real happy to see anyone."

Shego rolled her eyes, but the eyes she rolled looked sad. "I guess that's not the puppy for you, then, Doc. Come on, maybe you can get something fierce, like a Doberman." She gave her harsh little laugh. "Of course, with your luck, you'd probably get a Doberman that's scared of your bunny slippers."

She'd found the bunny slippers?

Drakken tapped on the links of the cage. "Hi, there," he murmured softly.

Something happened then. Something no one there could quite believe.

The poodle lifted his head from his paws, and his mouth opened into a doggy smile, showing tiny puppy-teeth. And his puffy little tail began to slap against the bottom of the cage.

"Well, I'll be the son of a gun," the worker murmured.

"Okay, that's weird," Shego agreed.

Slowly, cautiously, Drakken stuck his hand inside the cage. The puppy bounded over and gave it a slurp. "Shego, he likes me!" he hissed in his quietest voice.

"I know," Shego whispered back. "Some things just defy logic."

He made a face at her.

The worker shook her head again, but this time she looked astonished. "You want to hold him, sir?"

Drakken nodded - and kept nodding until Shego elbowed him in the ribs and told him to stop before his head fell off. "I'm not entirely sure it's attached," she added.

He had a feeling he'd just been insulted, though he wasn't quite sure how. But that didn't matter once they brought the puppy into a little room with a couch.

Because the puppy took off across the room in little jumps and bounded into Drakken's arms, where he licked his face over and over with a very soft, very tiny, very pink tongue. And then yipped for joy.

"I don't get it," Shego said above him. "What does the puppy see in _him_?"

The worker smiled and scribbled something else down on her clipboard. "In all my years working here, I have seen things like this happen before. I can only say that animals seem to know who's a good person."

Shego went into a coughing fit that Drakken barely heard, because the whole world had just ground to a halt. When it started turning again, a tiny flicker of it would never be the same again.

"They used to make fun of me because I was small and funny-looking, too," he whispered into a fuzzy ear. "But I won't let them pick on you, and you won't let them pick on me. Deal?"

The poodle nibbled at the Band-Aid on Drakken's cheek in response. He decided to take that as a yes.

"So, are you going to be adopting him?" the worker asked.

"Absolutely," Drakken replied. He got to his feet, straightened his shoulders, and put on his best professional look.

"Excellent," she replied, handing him a bunch of papers. "Just get these filled out and you can come back for him tomorrow."

Drakken was about to wail "Tomorrow?" - until he caught sight of the papers. He understood "Name" and "Address," but everything underneath was a jumble of words that he knew, but that suddenly didn't make any sense. His middle clenched, and he could feel his breathing speeding up. "Shego?" he heard himself whimper.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll fill them out," Shego answered. Her eyes took on a gleam. "For a small fee."

She was impossible.

"I've got to warn you, though," the worker butted in. "He's not entirely housebroken."

_I am so!_ Drakken thought indignantly.

"Oh, great," Shego said, rolling her eyes again. "Puddles." She gave about half a smile. "That's kind of a cute name for a puppy, actually. Puddles."

Drakken fought back the urge to snort. And she said _he_ was clueless. "No, Shego," he said in his superiorest tone. (Most superior? Oh, forget it!) "He needs a name far more dignified than that. His name will be -" He scrambled around in his brain for something dignified and pounced on the first title he came up with - "_Commodore_ Puddles!"

Shego burst right out laughing.

Hmmph. Well, he still thought it was a good name.

"I mean, he knows to get your attention when he needs to go out, but he's kind of like a toddler - he only realizes he needs to go just a few minutes before it gets urgent." The worker smiled affectionately. "So, don't wait too long to let him out, or you will have some puddles."

"From where?" Drakken whispered to Shego.

She gave him a very long look. "That is the stupidest thing you have ever said."

Did he miss something here?

"All right, Shego," he said as they were leaving, papers tucked firmly under Shego's arm. "Let's get home so I can go and work on my plan to conquer -"

She put a hand over his mouth then. Why, Drakken wondered, didn't she ever let him talk about world domination in public?

But he gave Commodore Puddles a wave over his shoulder and the poodle smiled back and his little pink tail beat a rhythm against the worker's shirt. Drakken knew he had - at last - found a kindred spirit.

*******

Random note: Shego has a few random moments of unpredictable softness in the series. I imagine she'd like puppies, as long as she didn't have to take care of one.


	3. Chapter 3

Conclusion.

***************************

Bowls. Dog food. Rawhide bones. Chew toys. Balls. A leash.

It was scattered all over the living room of his lair, just _waiting _for Commodore Puddles to come home. Drakken stuck his fingers inside the pet carrier for his new puppy to lick. And they would be home right about - now!

He was up and out of the car almost before Shego had turned the last corner, barging right on in with the pet carrier in one hand. Commodore Puddles yipped excitedly.

"Okay, Commodore Puddles," Drakken said, setting the carrier down on the floor. "Welcome to your new home!"

He opened the door, and the poodle bounded out. He rested his chin on his front paws and stuck his rump in the air, tail wagging madly. His eyes darted around excitedly, as if he couldn't decide what to do first. Drakken knew the feeling.

Finally, Commodore Puddles chose to dash over to his new water bowl and take several greedy little laps. Then he jumped back across the room, into Drakken's arms, and began to lick his face with his now-very-wet tongue.

It tickled, and he couldn't help but laugh. Matter of fact, he laughed until his sides hurt.

"What's all the giggling about?" Shego asked as she stepped into the living room.

Drakken narrowed his eyes at her and raised his chin indignantly. "Evil geniuses do not _giggle_, Shego," he spat out.

Shego snorted. "Exactly. So -" she gave her hand a careless wave - "speaking of evil geniuses, what's this big plan you've been working on?"

Drakken felt himself beam with pride. His latest evil scheme teetered on his lips, ready to be explained, ready to make everyone gasp in awe at his brilliance. It was a feeling he stopped to savor for a moment, because it never lasted. Not after he actually started explaining it.

"I call it 'Operation Evil Global Warming of Doom!!!!'" Drakken began.

Both of Shego's eyebrows shot straight up.

"What?" Drakken demanded. Why didn't she like any of his name choices? First the puppy, now the evil scheme...

"Nothing, nothing." Shego shook her head impatiently. "Go on."

Drakken unfurled the piece of paper he'd been scribbling on the night before last. "With this machine - which I have yet to build," he added in a much quieter tone, "I shall melt the polar ice caps and flood every country in their path!"

"I guess we should break out the water wings, huh?" Shego responded.

Drakken felt himself scowling. "What is _that _supposed to mean?"

Shego gave a huge sigh. "It means, where are we going to be through all of this? Will we get washed away, too?"

He froze.

One side of Shego's mouth went up. "Didn't think of that, did you, Einstein?"

No. That wasn't going to stop him. There was this guy, back in Sunday School a long time ago - he'd built a huge boat and saved his family and all the animals while the rest of the world was flooded. Maybe he could do that.

"I'll - I'll think of something," he sputtered out. "Meanwhile," Drakken added over Shego's snorts, "I shall build _another _machine that will _re_freeze the polar ice caps. That way, if they want to stop the world from flooding, everyone will have to surrender - to me!"

He gave a long pause and waited for the praise. And waited. And waited. "Shego?" he finally got out.

"Yeah, uh-huh, I heard you." Shego went after one of her nails as if it was making her angry. "I'm just not sure how it'll work."

"What do you mean?"

"We-ell," Shego began, "what about, like, the woolly mammoths and stuff encased in ice? What if they got loose or something? And what if your freezing machine breaks or some government agent gets a hold of it? And how would you re-freeze all the polar ice caps when they've already melted and probably merged with all the other water in the world? You'd wind up freezing all the oceans!"

Right at that moment, Drakken hated her. "Well - they'll - I'll - I don't have all the bugs worked out yet!"

"Riii-iiight."

He sighed. The more "i"s Shego put in "right," the more doubtful she was.

"Oh, and by the way," Shego added, sticking a roll of paper towels into his hand. "You'll need these."

"Oh, thanks." Drakken snatched them from her and looked around for a pen. "I can draw my blueprints for the melting machine on them."

"No, I mean you'll need them for _that_." Shego stabbed her finger in the general direction of Commodore Puddles.

Drakken followed her finger with his eyes. His puppy was coming up from a squat.

Oh. _That _kind of puddle.

"Shego," he whispered hoarsely, "is he supposed to be doing that?"

"Yeah," Shego replied dryly. "That's part of the _responsibilities_ _of being a pet owner_. You need to train them not to do that inside."

"Oh." Drakken felt the heat rising to his cheeks. "I thought they just sort of...came trained."

"Yeah, and another thing," Shego added, nodding to the puddle. "You're cleaning that up."

Drakken stared blankly down at the paper towels in his hand. "How?"

Shego slapped a hand over her mouth and began to guffaw.

"Shego, how?"

*********

He found out how. By the time Shego left for the day, he had cleaned up three more puddles and taken Commodore Puddles out several more times before he could _make _the puddles. He'd told Shego that that wasn't as much fun as playing with him.

"That's the thing about puppies," Shego said as she gathered her things to leave. "They're kind of fun to watch act silly, but once you have to clean up after them, they get obnoxious." As she disappeared out the door, he heard her mumble, "Sort of like you."

Drakken didn't know what that meant, and he didn't really care. No matter what she said, he didn't think Commodore Puddles was obnoxious.

Especially not when it started to get dark. As he worked on Operation Evil Global Warming of Doom!!!, Commodore Puddles curled up next to his chair and licked his ankle occasionally. It felt - cozy, and it made him forget about the night shadows.

He didn't know how long they'd been like that, when the puppy whined and began pawing at his coat. When Drakken looked down at him, he saw Commodore Puddles practically trembling.

"Oh!" Drakken felt like one of those cartoon light bulbs had gone on over his head. "Do you need to go out?"

Commodore Puddles whimpered in response.

"Okay, then." He clipped a leash onto Commodore Puddles's new collar - no easy feat; he wound up pinching his finger more than once - and took him outside the lair.

Sure enough, the puppy did his business. But once he was done, he just sat there and stared at the sky.

"What are you looking at?" Drakken asked - as if Commodore Puddles could answer him. So he just decided to look for himself.

Stars. An endless number of stars stared down at him, like pieces of glitter thrown across a black piece of construction paper.

Drakken hadn't looked up at the stars for a while, and every time he did, he felt obliged to ponder the mysteries of life. Things like why did everyone call margarine butter even if its brand name was "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!"? No one ever said, "Please pass the margarine." Or what would happen if you stuck a screwdriver in your bellybutton and turned it backward?

Suddenly, though, looking at the stars, he felt very - small. He also sort of felt like he was being watched. Like someone was surveying him from behind those stars.

Drakken squirmed on the hard ground. He hadn't prayed for a long, long time. Well, really, what was he supposed to pray? _Please, God, let me take over the world? _

That didn't feel right. God had _made _the world, so it must belong to him. He probably wasn't going to just hand it over to any punk who wanted to rule it.

__

What if I promised to take really, really good care of it?

But he still felt like he had itching powder down his coat. _That _wasn't right, either.

"Just...." Drakken whispered to whoever was behind the stars. "Just don't - don't forget about me."

Commodore Puddles nuzzled his cold, wet nose under Drakken's arm just then and brought him away from the sudden lumpiness in his throat. His brown eyes seemed to understand everything.

Suddenly, though, the fur went up on the back of the puppy's neck, and he broke into shrill, yappy barks. Drakken heard footsteps, and he froze. Someone was coming! He'd been discovered!

The air hissed out of him in relief when he saw it was just someone from UPS, carrying a brown package. "You Drew Lipsky?" the man grunted.

Drakken gave him his best villain-suspicious look. "Who wants to know?"

The man rolled his eyes. "I got a package here for him."

He was suddenly grateful for the darkness. You couldn't tell what color someone's skin was in the dark.

"Aren't you guys supposed to deliver in the _morning_?" Drakken asked.

The man groaned. "Look, pal, it was murder finding this place. You're lucky we're here at all. Now, are you Lipsky or not?"

Drakken sighed. "Yes, that's me. Do I need to sign?"

"Yeh. Here." The man thrust out a piece of paper, and as he did, Drakken caught sight of the return address.

__

Mother.

Once the paper was signed and the man had left, Drakken tore open the box. And stopped and stared for what could have been hours.

Nestled among those weird little Styrofoam packing peanuts was a teddy bear. Soft and brown, lovingly hand-stitched. There was something on its face, though - something strange.

With hands that were suddenly shaky, he reached into the box and pulled it out. It was just what he had thought. Knitted under the teddy bear's left eye was a long, jagged scar.

__

Oh, Mother.

Drakken reached back into the box and pulled out a slip of paper. It read:

__

Dear Drewbie,

I heard what the doctors said about your cut; that it was probably going to scar. I wanted you to see this as a reminder that those who matter won't mind, and those who mind won't matter. To me, you'll always be the most handsome man in the world.

Hang in there, Baby.

Love,

Mom

He stared down at the note until it disappeared in a blur. Then he went inside and hid it in his underwear drawer.

Suddenly, Drakken felt tired. Very tired. Much too tired to work on Operation Globing Warming of Doom!!! It was just as well, though. The little I-don't-want-to-take-over-the-world creature was stirring inside him.

"Come on, Commodore Puddles," he muttered. "Let's go to bed."

Commodore Puddles seemed fine with that; he didn't even seem to think the teddy bear was a new chew toy. So Drakken got into his pajamas and even remembered to take out his contacts.

He took the teddy in his arms. It was every bit as soft as it looked. And he climbed into bed with it, holding it tightly in his arms. There was something safe about it.

Commodore Puddles climbed right into bed with him and curled up at his feet. Within seconds, he could feel the puppy's soft little sleep-breaths against his leg. It was all very - peaceful.

And for the first time in a long, long time, Drakken was content.

*********************

Note: The teddy bear can be spotted on _A Very Possible Christmas_. (And, yes, it has a scar.)


End file.
